Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sunshine!

I've been off for 4 whole days and I feel like a new person! :) It's been great being outside with the kids. Although Robert is becoming rather challenging. Basically directly defying anything I say. Today it was repeatedly kicking Snoopy-going to time out-coming out and doing it again. Argh! I think he is way overtired. He didn't nap and with being outside this afternoon he was wiped out. Snoopy's vet visit went OK. She's the same weight she was last year-so about 3-5 lbs overweight. So tomorrow it's back to work-8-5 tomorrow and some thursday and then night shift fri and sat for a coworker.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Kids update!

I decided not to throw the cute kid stuff in with my other post :) Robert's favorite book at the moment? "the percolated puppy" (perky little puppy). LOL. It is hilarious to hear him call it a percolated puppy. I feel like I did something to the puppy and turned it into coffee. He can already recite huge chunks of it.

The kids have NOT been happy with how much I've worked this week (after tonight it will be oh 42ish hours) and cry as Wesley pulls them out of my arms to take them to Denee's while I sleep. Total mommy guilt here! I'll be SO glad to be working less after this! I miss my kids.

I was telling Mary at supper the other day to not feed Snoopy (I know the vet is NOT going to be happy with her weight when he sees her tomorrow!). Robert looks up and says "Mary, that's one" in my voice. (We count with Robert; that's 1, that's 2, that's 3-time out. ROTFL.) Mary's fatal attraction is Snoopy's water bowl (as was Robert's at this age!) a couple days ago I saw her crawling towards it shaking her head "no" and saying, "no, no, no". She's walking more but still not fully walking everywhere. Silly girl :) She has also learned to trade stuff with Robert (which Robert still hasn't figured out) she'll take his train and he'll be crying over it and she'll hand him a car and he's all happy. There's a smart girlie!

Robert has graduated to being able to play outside without me-with me watching from the glass door and hauling him back inside if he gets out of my sight. That has been so nice! I have a chance to do some supper prep or nurse Mary or something while he's outside. THere's days when it's warm enough for him but not warm enough for me to want to sit outside or haul Mary out.

Death and Life.... in God's hands

Squeamish alert-this post is all about the dying part of my job-I need to journal it somewhere. So if you don't like stuff like this then pass over this entry......

This new job (nursing coordinator) has its rougher spots-mainly in the fact that I see every dead person from the hospital AND all the medical examiner cases for H'burg and Rockingham county. Needless to say it is a rare day that I don't spend some time down in the morgue-which apparently is the lowest tech morgue around per the organ donation people! I guess the new hospital's will be more up to date. I feel so helpless sometimes talking to families. Some go well-the person was older, they had had a good life, the family was fairly prepared. And then you get the ones where none of that is the case. Working with the medical examiner has been interesting too-he gets called for any suspicious deaths, homicides, suicides etc. But this all is absolutely NOT my favorite part of my job. I'm not sure I had seen more than 3 dead people in my whole life before last month and I've seen 6 or more since then. Ugh. The other coordinators say it gets easier, you get numb-er maybe or you have to learn to distance yourself a little. But let me tell you I come home and hold my sweetie and my babies so tight and pray to God that nothing ever happens to them. And then I wake up and pray some more-for us and for those families who are hurting so badly. I will say one thing-the families who know God are so much more at peace than those who don't. It is amazing to watch. They talk about the hope that they have in Jesus and that they will see their loved one again and that the person is free from pain. I am so thankfull that I too have that reassurance-do you?

Tonight is my last night of orientation. Yikes!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

so busy!

These weeks are going by too fast! We were all under the weather last week and then we are ramping up for go live this week plus the end of orientation. This is my second night shift orientation and I have to say that I LOVE night shift coordinator! Love, love, love it! So much more what I was expecting to do/be. Today we were up and at em all day-took the kids to the bike store and then to walmart (bought Robert a bike with training wheels at Walmart!), then home for lunch and nap and then spent the afternoon outside. So I was worried that I would be so tired tonight, but it has been fine. I feel fantastic. AND with the kids and Wesley at church I'll be able to sleep, sleep, sleep :) I think I'm going to sleep upstairs today so the kids don't find me. Wesley found that the old camper has some more water dammage (we should have sold it last fall but he didn't get it fixed to his satisfaction-err). I finished clearing out the debris from under the peach tree while the kids played outside, so that's another job done. The house looks like a tornado hit it but oh well. And I need to plant some stuff outside but that will have to wait too! This week I work again night shift tonight and then 9p-1am Tues night (before go live) and then 7p-7a Wed and Thurs. Those are my last days (nights) of orientation and then I am on my own. I'll be continuing to work meditech for another month doing some audits and then will need to see what to mix in with nursing coordinator to fill in the rest of my time (I'm only working 1 12 hour shift/week unless convering for vacations etc).

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter

I know, it's been 10 days. What a crazy, stupid week. We've all been sick and I've worked a ton-and this new job is throwing me for a loop every time. Parts of it I really like, and parts of it not so much. I'm just not used to feeling like I don't know what I'm doing! Argh. We finished up teaching this week and have a week of catch up before go live next Tuesday (ack) which coincides with my last week of orientation (ackkkkkkkkkkkkkk!). I do my first night shift orientation Wed, and then work nights this weekend (Sat and Sun) and then 2 next week over go live. I will survive.... I have to!

The kids very much enjoyed their Easter. Thanks to a mix up at work where they forgot to tell me that a meeting for the nursing coordinators was canceled I had some extra shopping time without the kids on Friday. I did hear from my boss that they will be paying me the manditory 2 hours that they pay if you aren't called and told not to come. I ended up finding a kitchen on clearance for $20 (very cheap in every sense of the word) and made some felt playfood for Robert's basket. It was a big hit. The 2 of them cooking together are adorable. Mary got a feeding set for her doll, a pair of pink sunglasses and a play cell phone (the cellphone was the hit!). I got Robert some art supplies (pipe cleaners, pom poms, googley eyes, foam stickers) before I thought of the playfood. They also got books from Nanny and a basket of stuff from Roger and Peggy. We had a nice afternoon at Nanny's. The kids played outside with their "cousins"-bubbles and ball and just ran around. It was a nice afternoon. And the kids are tired and sound asleep!

Our trip to old surber station last weekend was wonderful. It was so beautiful and peaceful and fun there. The house was gorgeous and we had a great time hiking along the creek and just hanging out. I definitely want to go back soon! Here's the website for the house:
http://www.surberstation.com/index.html

Thursday, April 02, 2009

whew!

It's been a week and it's only Thursday! This being back in orientation is exhausting. I haven't felt so inadequate/unsure about myself in um 7+ years when I was a new grad. I've had 3 days of orientation, I have 5 more and I'm on my own (ack!!!!!!!!!!!). Every day gets a tiny bit better but throws some new complexity into the mix. God has definitely been in on this orientation because each day has built on the day before.

Day 1-just admissions (no deaths, no codes, no complications), day 2 a "minor" code (the patient revived quickly). Day 3-a code the minute I hit the office (literally) but it was OK, a death shortly after (not related to the code), a bazillion transfers out of CCU and telemetry and a slew of admissions, plus a variety of other misc crazy things-pick ups from funeral homes, organ donation arangements.... I finally have a handle on how to get messages off the pager (which I promise you goes off a 100 times AT LEAST in my 12 hour shift) and some/most of the phone # for the various units.

So this week I worked 6-7:30 learning how to do central line blood draws, then taught from 8a-6p, Tuesday orientation from 7a-7p, Wednesday I got to sleep in a tad-tought from 10:30-6pm. I got out of one class today so I just have a 9p-11p class tonight. It's been great to see the kids. Mary is walking pretty well. The babysitter says Robert is hilarious at her house, I'm not finding him so hilarious here, but oh well. The whining and fake crying are driving me CRAZY. But that wasn't a far trip. We tried to go outside this am but it was COLD and he ended up wet and muddy. I even had to wash his shoes!

We leave in the morning (Wesley and I) for a weekend away-bliss. Our friends Heather and Ryan are coming tomorrow night to watch the kids for us. Roger will pick them up from Denee's and they'll watch them until H+R get here and then again Sunday between when they have to leave and we get back. I am so looking forward to SLEEPING IN (why has Robert decided that 7/7:30 is a good time to get up?), relaxing and hanging out with Wesley.